Quitting the Old Skin
by Misuzu-PM
Summary: Discontinued. Somehow, Vaughn and his alcoholism make it into Chelsea's life and she takes it upon herself to fix him. The old saying about teaching old dogs new tricks just might be right. Rating likely to go up in the future. Rewrite of Innocence in You.


Disclaimer: I make no claim to ownership! Harvest Moon is © Marvelous Interactive and Natsume.

**Chapter 1**

The experience was pretty frightening, really. She'd thought, when growing up, that this would be the high point of her life. Finally getting away from that crazy, drunken mom and living my life the way _she _wanted. She had dreams and ambitions back then, but they were sadly crushed the moment she turned eighteen and got into the real world.

When she graduated from high school, her brother was kind enough to let her stay on his couch for a while, just until she got on her feet. She tried to find work and failed pretty badly, experience being a huge factor. Even the jobs that only required a high school diploma turned her down because she didn't have the experience.

How the heck was she supposed to get experience if no one would hire her? The local fast food places weren't even hiring. People she knew from school had filled the few positions she could've even hoped to get.

It took almost a whole year, but she started noticing a bunch of ads in the paper about work on the islands. Farm work, mostly. Things most people in the city would never dream of, but she was desperate. Why not? Her body was young and sturdy and she could learn pretty fast. One morning she just made a decision and started going to the library to find whatever she could on farming.

And so there she was, waiting for the line to the ferry to shorten. Panicking on the inside because of all the sudden memories that made her feel attached to this city. She reminded herself again and again,_ I need to grow a pair and get on the stupid boat. I could always visit after I settle in. _

That was when she realized that the line in front of her had disappeared and she was the only one left waiting anymore. The captain stared at her expectantly and she quickly grabbed her suitcases before running up the ramp.

"Now if you don't mind," he started with a smile, "I'm gonna need to take down your information for the manifest, miss. Gender? Sorry, but I need to ask."

"Female." What? Did she look like a cross-dresser?

"Your birthday? Including the year, please."

"May 20th, 1990."

"Mhm, now your name?"

"Chelsea Fairchild."

"Alright, that'll be all." He showed to her own private quarters, paid for by her brother as a going away gift. What an awesome guy. She opened the small window and let the air in. It was a clear, beautiful day out and she found that it really heightened her mood. It was a perfect day to start a new life.

–

It was exactly 15 seconds from the time that Taro closed the door until Chelsea broke down in tears. She quickly collapsed into a blubbering heap on the floor under the weight of the situation, hugging her knees for some weak semblance of comfort.

What the heck happened?

How did she end up owning a ranch and a dusty old shack? Taro had been so nice, and she was still woozy from waking up after the storm. The words that came out of his mouth went right over her head until it was too late.

The first real sign of homesickness showed itself and it was an effort and a half to squash it. Finally, enough was enough and she won the battle against the child in her. A wipe of her tears, a dusting of her clothes and she was ready to stand tall and face her new life.

A mirror was mounted on the wall to her left. She took a moment to wipe off the years of dust and gave her self a smile and two thumbs up. If she could stand years under the roof of a dysfunctional family, then screw turnips; turnips had nothing on mom.

One last check to make herself presentable to the world and she marched out into her field to do some farming.

Chelsea would have to start off small. She took her hoe (one of the tools that had seemed to magically make their way into her possession, though she chalked this feeling up to her near-death daze) and tilled away. A tiny patch would do for the turnip seeds she had. Just a enough to test the soil.

_See, _she looked at her handiwork, _that was easy! _

It was as she was watering the patch that Taro's pinkette granddaughter showed up. Chelsea gave her a friendly smile and waved, "Natalie right?"

"Yeah, and you're Chelsea?" An affirmative nod and she continued, "Well I just thought, I dunno, wanna hang out sometime? Since we're gonna be stuck on this island together, and all." Natalie was acting non-nonchalantly, but Chelsea knew the want for friends when she saw it. Afterall, she'd been in that very position herself.

"Sure, sounds cool. Hey, I'm done here for today. Wanna go look around?" The other girl's face brightened just barely.

"We can do that." Yup, life on the island would be great.

–

AN: Good news everyone! I'm back!

I teeny tiny introductory chapter for my big rewrite. Future chapters should hopefully be longer and I'll be fleshing out the story a lot more. No more huge time skips to speed things up. My main goal here is to up the quality of the prose, so I apologize if it ends up sucking.

The story is basically the same with differences I'll try to remember to point out along the way.

For one, Chelsea is eighteen in this version because I couldn't justify her not to being in school after being emancipated.

I know I left a ton out of the opening, but I'm trying to prevent this from turning into the great copypasta adventure. I'll be keeping (most) of the game cannon, but I won't regurgitate every single event.

Feel free to ask questions, yell at me, or give me praise. Ya know, whichever you want. I'll be seeing you guys in chapter two!


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